Eyes gouged out, boy shot dead for affair

Patna, June 28: Blame it on political instability or weak governance — the crime graph is on a steady rise with an early morning murder of a 20-year-old boy being reported from Fatuha today.

On the other hand, a senior member of the ruling JDU, already facing criticism for failing to tackle crime in the city, has advised girls not to seek a lift from strangers after sunset while talking on Thursday’s attempted rape.

Twenty-year-old Rahul Kumar, a resident of Daulatpur, Fatuha, around 30km from Patna, was beaten up, eyes gouged out and shot dead by six persons just half-a-km away from his house.

“Rahul, preparing for competitive exams, had an affair with a girl who stays around 1km from his place. Around 12.30am, Rahul, son of Rakesh Kumar, a driver by profession, woke up and went to the girl’s place to meet her. However, the girl’s family came to know about it and caught Rahul and the girl talking. They started beating him up. It seems that Rahul’s eyes were gouged before he was shot five times from close range. The body was sent for post-mortem after which it was handed over to Rahul’s family, who named six persons in the FIR. We have arrested Govind and Roshan, both are the girl’s brothers,” said Vijay Kumar Singh, station house officer, Gaurichak.

In May this year, 31 people have been murdered in Patna while the corresponding figure of abduction and rape is 70 and 11, respectively. In May last year, the figure of murder was 28, the numbers of kidnapping and rape were 60 and seven respectively.

While people have started criticising the Jitan Ram Manjhi government for failing to control crime, a section of the media reported that JDU MLC Sanjay Singh advised girls not to go outdoors after sunset. However, he clarified to The Telegraph: “I had only said the girls should not take lift from strangers.”

On Thursday, the girl had asked for a lift from a person who had tried to rape her. She was thrown out of the car near the MIG Quarters area of Kankerbagh after she raised an alarm. Her cries were heard by a family who had helped the girl and informed the police.

Several women reacted sharply to Sanjay’s statement though.

“Only sometime back, former chief minister Nitish Kumar repeatedly said his government had got the state out of the ‘jungle raj’. He had said that girls in Patna could move around after sunset without fear. Is this safety? And now, one of his party leaders, instead of having sympathy for the girl, says that we should not move out after sunset. Tomorrow they might ask us to sit at homes in the daytime too,” Shivani Sharma, a student in Boring Road, said.